Tame Impala live review
Tonight is perhaps the most compelling evidence yet that Tame Impala have been 2012’s most successful sleeper hit. With no more exposure than the buzz of a handful of gushing reviews for their second album Lonerism and fervent word of mouth, the Australian band are capping the year with a sold-out show at Brixton and celebrating like it’s, well, 1973, with a set that includes a huge, waggling spectrogram behind the band and at least two extended drum solos.
Such retrospection isn’t necessarily a bad thing – indeed, much of Lonerism’s success results from its modern reinterpretation of classic prog – but what leaves tonight’s show rather flat is that, as perhaps befits a band on a rapid ascent, they feel initially out of their depth. The Academy’s cavernous space swamps the band and their eccentric personalities (although, thankfully, not their musicianship, which remains resilient), and the resulting timidity transfers to the crowd as distracted chatter. Indeed, it’s not until the lolloping glam chug of Elephant, half-way through the set, that anyone either side of the barriers really seems to engage, and although the second half is an improvement, there’s still a sense, even as the triumphant Half Full Glass Of Wine rings out to close the encore, that Tame Impala might be doing too much, too soon.
